Every year, considerable damage is done to homes and business establishments by leaking water from roof leaks, plumbing fixtures, pipes, water heaters, air conditioners, and other appliances. These leaks often occur for a long period of time before any evidence or damage is noticed, often with catastrophic results, such as floors falling in or ceiling material dropping into the room below. This damage often results in insurance claims and settlements that cost businesses, consumers and insurance companies untold millions of dollars per year. Although there are some leak detection systems in the market, most are expensive, complicated, and/or difficult for the user to install.
In recent years the so-called dropped ceiling has become popular. In this arrangement, a grid-work of thin metal beams is suspended from the ceiling or other structure. Ceiling tiles are then placed in the (rectangular or square) openings defined by the grid-work. This ceiling is popular in homes and offices alike.
In many instances, the drop ceiling is positioned above a room containing expensive or critical equipment or inventory. A ready example of this is the ubiquity of computers and computer servers in modern offices, typically below a drop ceiling. When there would be a water leak above the drop ceiling, the drop ceiling tends to obscure the leak until it becomes a substantial problem. It often occurs that the leak develops at night, on weekends, or other times when workers might not notice immediately. These leaks can be catastrophic to the operation of a business. For example, consider a web-based business that relies heavily on its computers and servers. A flood in a room housing such equipment poses a serious risk to the enterprise.
One approach to this problem has been a leak detection system provided by Dorlen Products Inc. of Milwaukee, Wis., under the trademark CEILING GUARD. This product comprises a series of sensing panels affixed to a customer's ceiling. Each panel is in the form of a trough with liquid sensors positioned in the bottom of the trough. The troughs are electrically connected to one another in order to be able to monitor a large zone. Each zone, which can be up to 320 ft.2, terminates in a detector module that provides audible alarms for water sensed in the zone and signals a central monitoring controller or panel that there has been a problem. These sensing panels are provided with end ribs or dams that prevent liquid from leaking out of the sensing panels. However, retaining all of the moisture in these troughs can lead to a catastrophic failure of the ceiling inasmuch as a typical drop ceiling is not intended to support the weight of a substantial amount of water. Moreover, these sensing panels can be difficult for an end user to install. Furthermore, this zone approach does not inform the user about which panel has suffered a liquid leak, but instead only informs the user of which zone is suffering from a liquid leak.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need yet remains in the art for a leak detection system and leak detector tile that is easily installed, is relatively inexpensive, provides precise leak location sensing, and is reliable in operation. It is to the provision of such a leak detection system and leak detector tiles that the present invention is primarily directed.